Electric incense vaporizer



June 3, 1941. .1. 'r. WILLIAMS EIAL ELECTRIC INC E NSE VAPOI KIZER FiledJuly 29, 1939 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Inventor-s:

SH. m 5 a 6 m M w TW .t Th w/M mm f a Jfi x uJ B Patented June 3, 1941UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE ELECTRIC INCENSE vsroinzm 2 Claims.

Our invention relates to electric incense vaporizers, and has for itsobject to provide in combination means for holding a quantity of incenseliquid such as some of the highly scented oils employed for thatpurpose, in combination with electric means for heating a surface andmeans for applying a film or desired quantity of liquid to the heatedsurface whereby it will be volatilized and caused to pass into any roomor space where it is desired to have a pleasant odor, either for thesake of the odor itself or to override unpleasant odors such as mayoccur in kitchens, toilet rooms, and the like.

It is therefore, a principal object of our invention to provide acontainer for an incense liquid with means for introducing the liquidtherein in combination with an electric heating unit having a surfaceadapted to be heated together with means for causing a limited amount ofthe incense liquid to be applied to said surface either before or afterthe same has been heated.

It is a further object of our invention to provide a'container forliquid incense in combination with a spring retracted plunger wherebythe plunger may be caused to dip into the liquid within the containerand then retract to normal position and to form within the plungerelectrical resistances in an electric circuit whereby when the circuitis closed the surface of the plunger will be heated causing the liquidon the surface thereof to throw off fumes which have the characteristicodor of the liquid incense.

It is a further object of our invention to provide a container forliquid incense having a gravity discharge opening in association with aspring retracted plunger which is formed with an opening or cavity suchthat in retracted position the opening or cavity will be filled with theliquid and when it is pushed forward the small portion of liquid sotrapped will have means for gravitating to an electrically heated pan,whereby said liquid will be caused to vaporize and the fumes will giveoff the desired pleasant odor.

It is a further object of our invention in connection with the forms ofthe invention above outlined, to provide a spring retracted switchclosing member such that when it is pressed in it will close the switchand cause the surface of the liquid receiving member, whether it be panor plunger, to become heated, and which, when pressure is removed, willrelease the switch to open the circuit so that excessive or too longcontinued heating of the evaporating surface will not take place.

The full objects and advantages of our invention will appear inconnection with the detailed description thereof, and the novel featuresof our invention which produce the aforesaid beneficial results areparticularly pointed out in the appended claims.

In the drawings illustrating our invention as specifically embodied insome of its forms,

Fig. 1 is a sectional elevation view of our electric incense burner.

Fig. 2 is a sectional plan view taken on line 2-2 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a sectional 33 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 4 is a sectional plan view taken on line 44 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 5 is a sectional elevation view showing a plan view taken on linemodified form of our invention.

Fig. 6 is a sectional of Fig. 5.

Fig. 7 is a part sectional view showing a modified form of theliquid-releasing piston.

Fig. 8 is a section view showing still another modified form of liquidreceiving and delivering piston.

Referring first to Fig. l, a base upon which are secured a multiplicityof spring fingers ll being fastened to the bases by screws I2. Removablyheld upon the base 10 is a container 13 which is held secured inposition by means of a bolt and nut I4, Fig. 1, connected therewith. Thecontainer 13 may be of any desired shape, and as shown is semi-conicalwith a bottom cylindrical portion i5, a, narrowed portion 16 and aconical flange lip ll for getting the liquid into the holding chamber [8inside of the member l3.

Removably held upon the base ID by means of the spring fingers I I is a.casing member l9 fitted with a conical annular flange 20 andsemispherical top 2|. Secured to the top 2| by means of nuts 22 and 23is a hollow threaded member 24. The member 24 is provided with a guideopening 25 in which is mounted a plunger shaft 26 having on its upperend a knob 21 surrounded by a compression coil spring 28. The spring 28enters a tubular chamber 29 in the member 24 and engages an annularshoulder 30 on said member. By this means the plunger shaft 26 and partscarried by it are held in a desired retracted position. Threaded uponthe end of shaft 26 by means of a nut extension 3| is a block 32 whichcarries a stem 33 of insulating material around which is wound aresistance wire 34 having connection with a circuit formed of wires 35,36 and 36' passing through a switch block 37 and ultimately leading fromthe apparatus through cable 38 to be plugged in to line current in acustomary manner. A spring retracted plunger member 39 comprises aself-opening switch adapted to make closing contact between wires 36 and36' as long as the plunger member 39 is held down by an operator.Current will then be caused to pass through resistance wire 34 whichwill become suitably heated thereby.

In operation the plunger 21 will be pushed plan view taken on line 6-6I0 is provided down to bring the stem 33 into the liquid within chamber[8, the stem being preferably pushed down to seat in the cylindricalextension l5 thereof. When the plunger is released the spring 28 bringsthe stem and its electrical windings 34 out of the liquid but coveredwith a film thereof such that when the resistance is heated. the film ofliquid will be turned into vapor and the fumes thereof will escapethrough openings through casing Hi. In practice, the windings 34 on stem33 may be covered with an insulating heat conducting sheath such as micaor sheet composition material to prevent any tendency of shortingbetween wires because of the liquid incense on the surface which isdipped into the liquid in chamber 18.

A spring finger guide M is held positioned by a screw member 42 andengages the side of the block 32 to guide it in its movements as stem 33is thrust into and withdrawn from chamber l8.

In the form of invention of Figs. 5 to 8, a base of flattened oval shapeas shown in Fig. 6 has secured thereto a casing 5| of similar ovalledshape. The casing 5i is provided with a longitudinal insulated partition52 which divides the space within it into two separated chambers 53 and54. Within chamber 54 is formed a receptacle 55 comprising a separatechamber 55 for incense liquid introduced thereinto through a feedingopening 51 closed by a screw cap 58. A tubular member 59 extends acrosschamber 54 forming a cylindrical passageway 50 extending throughinsulating partition 52 and provided with an air escape opening 6|, Fig.5.

Within chamber 53 is located a pan 62 adapted to be heated by meanshereinafter described. A tube 63 has its end 64 overlying the pan B2 andsaid tube has an upwardly turned extension 65 formed to give acylindrical opening 66 into cylindrical passageway 60. A plunger stem8"! has thereon a piston 68. The stem is provided with a head 69, and acompression spring is between said head and the wall of easing 5i holdsthe plunger and the piston in normal retracted position with the pistonin engagement with a stop H, punched up from tubular member 59 to leavean air vent 12, Fig. 5. The piston 68 will have a normally sealing fitwith the inside of passageway 60. The piston will however cooperate witha channel 13 extending from chamber 56 to passageway 58 and cooperatingwith some form of cavity in piston 68 when it is in its normal retractedposition. As shown in Fig. 5, this cavity may be an annular orsemiannular groove 14 which has a portion underlying channel 13 in theretracted position of the plunger and a portion overlying opening'BG inthe projected position of piston 68. As shown in Fig. 7, the cavity ofpiston 68 may be a transverse bore or hole I5 which will directlyunderlie passageway 13 in the retracted position of piston 68 and willoverlie the opening 66 to tube 63 in the projected position of piston68.

Or, as shown in Fig. 8, a cup-like cavity 98 may be provided in arotatable piston 9| on stem 61 opening from 13 in alinement with opening66 and the member 9| being adapted to rotate a half turn to drop theliquid held in cavity into opening 66.

Whatever form of cavity is employed it will be understood that it willcooperate in one position with passageway 13 to receive a requisitecharge of incense liquid when the piston is in retracted position, andwill cooperate with opening 66 when the piston is in projected positionto discharge the predetermined quantity of liquid to passageway 63 downwhich it will gravitate into pan 62 to form a film over the surface ofsaid pan. Since all parts of piston 68 except the cavity-channel partmake a sealing fit, no incense liquid can pass through excepting whenthe piston is operated and then only the amount which is predeterminedby the size of whatever form of cavity is employed.

The pan 62 will have associated with it in any desired known manner,electrical heating means whereby the pan, and particularly its bottomportion, may be suitably and speedily heated. The pan is shown supportedby means of brackets 15 and Ti secured to casing 5| as shown in Fig. 6and these brackets support not only the pan but the heating elementscontained in a block 18. A circuit is adapted to be closed byself-retracting plunger switch 19 causing current to pass through wires88, BI and 82 from feed cable 83.

The advantages of our invention will be apparent. Whichever form isemployed a limited amount of incense liquid will be caused to bedelivered upon the surface which is to be heated. The heating of thissurface electrically effects quick and voluminous discharge of the fumesof the incense liquid which pass out through the holes ail of the casingsection. There will thus be vaporized almost immediately exactly theright amount of liquid to furnish the requisite amount of incense vaporfor the desired effect.

We claim:

1. An electric incense vaporizer comprising a casing formed with twochambers, a receptacle for incense liquid toward the top of one of saidchambers, an electric heater including a pan toward the bottom of theother of said chambers, means forming a passageway from said receptacleto overlie the pan, an interceptor comprising a piston formed with acavity extending from one side to the other of said piston, meansholding said piston normally so the cavity is presented to thepassageway coming from the receptacle, and means to project the pistonto bring the cavity into alinement with the passageway leading to thepan.

2. An electric incense vaporizer comprising a casing formed with areceptacle for incense liquid toward the top of the casing, a pan towardthe bottom of the casing and an electric heater for heating the same,means forming a passageway from said receptacle having a dischargeorifice directly overlying the pan, an interceptor in said passagewayhaving a cavity normally presented to the part of the passageway leadingto the receptacle, and manual means to move the interceptor to aposition where the cavity will be opened to the discharge orifice sothat the predetermined amount of liquid in the cavity will be dischargedfrom said orifice to fall by gravity upon the pan.

JAMES T. WILLIAMS. JAMES T. WILLIAMS, JR. KARL F. RIESE.

